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Section :2 Manifest Destiny: The belief, dominant in the 1840s, that American expansion to the Pacific Ocean and into Mexican territory was manifest (obvious). This led to conflict with Native Americans. –All went west for their own reasons but nearly all felt that they civilizers. Many fled cities and society because of financial problems, wanted a new start or were looking for new markets.

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Frederick Jackson Turner Wrote a thesis saying that the American frontier was the single characteristic that defined Americans –it made us different Europeans. The frontier represented the American Dream to many and defined what we see as American. –independence, ingenuity, and individual initiative Between 1812-1852 the U.S. grew from 7.25 million to more than 25 million, but land in the West increased by more than the size of Europe.

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Some other key ideas.. Treaty of Fort Laramie- represents a pattern since the terms of this treaty were often broken by the U.S. Fighting over how the West would be governed, defines American politics until the Civil War.

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Expansion in Texas & War with Mexico Mexico encouraged Settlement in Texas by giving away land. –Required that settlers become Mexican citizens and convert to Catholicism When the pop. of Texas became mostly Anglos they were very hard to control. (slavery) When they tried to crack down on Texas it led to the Texas Rebellion. Texas became the independent Republic of Texas in 1836.

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Annexing Texas When James Polk was elected he wanted to expand the U.S. After U.S. and Mexican troops fought on the border, asked Congress to declare war. There was some debate (Spot Resolution) but war was declared.